Little Havana, Miami, Florida

Beginning of Calle Ocho (US 41/SW 8th St) in Miami just east of SW 27th Avenue, where 8th Street becomes one-way eastbound.

Little Havana (Spanish: La Pequeña Habana) is a neighborhood and former census-designated place within the City of Miami, Florida, United States. It has many Cuban immigrant residents. Little Havana is named after Havana, the capital and largest city in Cuba. The rough boundaries are the Miami River (north), SW 11th Street (south), SW 22nd Avenue (west) and I-95 (east).^[1]

Little Havana is noted as a center of social, cultural, and political activity in Miami. Its festivals, including Carnival Miami, Cultural Fridays, the Three Kings Parade and others, are televised to millions of people every year on different continents. It is also known for its landmarks, including Calle Ocho (S.W. 8th Street), and its Walkway of the Stars (for famous artists and Latin personalities, including Celia Cruz, Willy Chirino, and Gloria Estefan), the Cuban Memorial Boulevard, Plaza de la Cubanidad, Domino Park, the Tower Theater, Jose Marti Park, the Firestone/Walgreens Building, St. John Bosco Catholic Church, Municipio de Santiago de Cuba and others. It is undoubtedly the best known neighborhood for Cuban exiles in the world. The name "Little Havana" emerged in the 1960s as the concentration of Cubans in the area grew sharply. Little Havana is the name affixed to a sprawling neighborhood lying immediately west of downtown Miami. It stretches west from the Miami River for several miles. This sobriquet was applied to the Shenandoah and Riverside neighborhoods in the 1960s, following the beginnings of a vast influx of Cuban refugees there. Little Havana is famous as the cultural and political capital of Cuban Americans, and the neighborhood is a center of the Cuban exile community. Little Havana is characterized by a robust street life, excellent restaurants, cultural activities, mom and pop enterprises, political passion, and great warmth amongst its residents.

The Little Havana Merchants Association [1] is an organization of local businesses that promotes responsible growth in the neighborhood. The group provides an online guide to local dining, shops, galleries, nightlife, and cultural events.

Places of interest

One of the cigar factories on Calle Ocho

• Calle Ocho (SW 8th Street)
• Cuban Memorial Boulevard (SW 13th Avenue)
• Centro Cultural Español de Cooperación Iberoamericana,[2]
• Versailles Restaurant
• La Casa de Tula[3]
• Padilla Cigar Factory[4]
• Domino Park
• Tower Theater
• Orange Bowl (demolished, now Marlin's ballpark)
• Jose Marti Park

Viernes Culturales

Viernes Culturales/Cultural Fridays[5] is an artistic, cultural, and social arts and culture fair that takes place on the last Friday of each month in the historic Little Havana neighborhood of Miami, FL, in the heart of Calle Ocho (8th St. SW between 14th and 17th Avenues). A powerful venue for talented visual artists and entertainers, the monthly festival offers an opportunity for visitors and tourists to experience an evening of culture with the diverse flavors of our Latino community. The event consists of outdoor musical performances on a stage and along the sidewalks of Calle Ocho, art exhibits along the sidewalk and in plazas and open spaces, visits to art galleries and cultural centers, cuisine tasting at participating restaurants, and films/art exhibits/ educational programs at the historic Tower Theatre. Free walking tours, led by famed Miami historian Dr. Paul George leave from the Tower Theater at 7pm each festival.

Calle Ocho Festival

Calle Ocho festival in 2001

Little Havana hosts its annual Calle Ocho street festival (part of the overall Carnaval Miami celebration), one of the largest in the world, with over one million visitors attending Calle Ocho alone. It is a free street festival with a Caribbean carnival feel sponsored by the Kiwanis Club of Little Havana.

Calle Ocho is where different ethnic communities wear colors or flags representing pride in their heritage. Flags from Colombia to Nicaragua to Puerto Rico to Costa Rica and even Ireland flood the streets. Foods from different countries are usually sold & popular music like reggaeton, salsa, bachata and merengue can be heard through the festival.

In 1977 tensions among Miami’s different ethnic groups were tense. Eight Cuban-Americans, mostly from the Kiwanis of Little Havana, were trying to come up with ideas to address the situation.

The idea of a concert was rejected because finding music agreeable to all would be difficult and because Hispanics would probably sit with Hispanics, blacks with blacks, and whites with whites.

They considered a bicycle race on SW Eighth Street (Calle Ocho). It was turned down because the organizers feared that it would pit one ethnic group against another.

Willy Bermello came up with the idea of doing something similar to the block parties and street festivals of Philadelphia. Calle Ocho was born .

The first year it was called Open House Eight. Avoiding any words in Spanish in the event’s title. “We didn’t want to turn anybody off with any words in Spanish,” Leslie Pantin says. “The idea was to invite our non-Hispanic neighbors to visit our house in Little Havana.”

The festival takes place between 27th Ave and 4th Ave along Southwest 8th Street. Over 30 stages and hundreds of street vendors participate in the live music street festival now in its 3rd decade.

Calle Ocho earned an entry in the Guinness Book of World Records when 119,986 people formed the world's longest conga line on March 13, 1988.

Gallery

Cuban Memorial Plaza 13th Avenue & Calle Ocho	Bay of Pigs Monument	Bust of Jose Marti	Memorial plaque of Cuba
Wall Mural 14th Avenue & Calle Ocho(2007)	Domino Park	Tower Theater 1508 Calle Ocho	Futurama Furniture Sign 1513 Calle Ocho(2007)

Demographics

Demographically, the neighborhood is split up into Little Havana (proper)^[2] and West Flagler (formerly West Little Havana),^[3] and as of 2000, the total population of both of the sections made up 90,218.^[4]

As of 2000,^[5] Little Havana had a population of 49,206 residents, with 19,341 households, and 11,266 families residing in the neighborhood. The median household income was $15,213.16. The racial makeup of the neighborhood was 85.08% Hispanic or Latino of any race (mainly Cubans, but also many Colombians, Dominicans and Brazilians), 3.79% Black or African American, 10.14% White (non-Hispanic), and 0.96% Other races (non-Hispanic).

As of 2000,^[6] West Flagler (West Little Havana) had a population of 41,012 residents, with 14,810 households, and 10,490 families residing in the neighborhood. The median household income was $26,176.70. The racial makeup of the neighborhood was 90.73% Hispanic or Latino of any race, 1.15% Black or African American, 7.61% White (non-Hispanic), and 0.49% Other races (non-Hispanic).

See also

• Cuba-United States relations
• Cuban-American lobby
• Mariel boatlift
• Opposition to Fidel Castro

References

Coordinates: 25°46′21.28″N 80°12′52.52″W / 25.7725778°N 80.2145889°W / 25.7725778; -80.2145889